Finally saw Memento for the First Time

God damn you Nolan.

I want to hate you. I want to call you overrated and full of yourself, to say that you're all smoke and mirrors, lacking real depth and emotional connection.

But you make it so hard when you make so many goddamn bangers.

Memento is ingenious because of it's structure. I'm aware that statement isn't new, but it's true. Pardon the rhyming. It's not just an interesting gimmick, it places us into the perspective of the main character, and emulates his psychological outlook on the world. But not only is it innovative, it's also mostly comprehensible, still delivering a classic three-act structure with a set up, build up, and pay-off, it's just that the actual chronology is mostly in reverse. It's one of the best examples I've seen of "the medium is the message."

What is the message? It's that humans are flawed. Broken. And will often delude themselves, not by accident, but by choice. That a system that we thought would help us can be set astray by the ones who created it. That there's no grand plan out there, at least, not one that our viewpoint can deduce. That we have to find our own meaning in life, and sometimes that can be dangerous and self-destructive, but it's also the only way we can move forward in a dark and confusing world.

I'm probably not saying much new, and this is all gushing out of me like the fanboy that I am, but that's honestly how I feel. The structure really is ingenious, maybe the best out of any Nolan film. Everything else, the characters, music, cinematography, etc. is all above average, but even if they were below average, the structure would still carry this film. I'm glad I finally got around to watching it, and even happier to agree with the consensus: Memento is a new classic of the 21st century.

P.S. Nolan knows how to make a closing line.

Submitted February 20, 2021 at 01:03PM by Grand_Keizer https://ift.tt/3dtRAhR